Marshal Harry’s murder: Suspects freed after seven years.
SEVEN years after their arraignment, suspects standing trial in the murder of the Deputy National Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, Harry Marshal, regained their freedom.
They are: Sunday Ofuoku; Musa Babatunde; Friday Amaize and Stephen Imodu.
They were discharged and acquitted by Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court for lack of substantial evidence against them.
The trial Judge held that the prosecution failed to link the accused persons with the murder charge against them.
He said There is a great need for the court to tread cautiously with circumstantial evidence brought by the prosecution because as the saying goes, it is better for a guilty person to go unpunished than for the innocent person to be wrongly punished.
According to him, The identity of the killers was not proved by the prosecutors. The person the prosecutor pointed was not arraigned or called as witness and the court cannot speculate as to whether the accused persons were actual perpetuators of the crime. Accordingly, all the accused are hereby discharged and acquitted."
The judge,however, sentenced Imodu] to five year’s imprisonment for illegal possession of firearms, which is to begin from the day he was arrested and detained.
It would be recalled that the four accused persons had in October, 2010 told the court that their confessional statements were extracted by the Police through torture in a desperate bid to obtain damning evidence linking them with the murder of the Rivers-born politician.
In his testimony, Friday Amaize stated that he was arrested on April 4, 2003 in Edo State and brought to Abuja after he was mentioned by one Felix Anegbe as the person that harboured the suspected killers in his guest house at Apo, Abuja.
He said the Police shot him with a pistol, while his wife was also arrested and tortured. This he said resulted in her miscarriage and death a week after her release, all in a bid to extract confessional statement from him.
He also narrated how his wife was hung on a table, her arms stretched the way they dry fish, all in a bid to make him confess to a crime he never committed.
The accused person, who was also cross-examined by William Ashu, counsel representing the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, further alleged that the former Inspector-General of Police,Tafa Balogun, insisted he must sign whatever statement that was given to him.
He said a cheque of N20 million purportedly made out to them as payment for the assassination was issued to them by the ex-IGP for the purpose of a press briefing. He wondered why both the said cheque and Felix Anegbe were not tendered or arraigned before the court.
The other accused persons, who testified that they had never met themselves before their arrest, also alleged that their confessional statements were obtained under duress.
SEVEN years after their arraignment, suspects standing trial in the murder of the Deputy National Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, Harry Marshal, regained their freedom.
They are: Sunday Ofuoku; Musa Babatunde; Friday Amaize and Stephen Imodu.
They were discharged and acquitted by Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court for lack of substantial evidence against them.
The trial Judge held that the prosecution failed to link the accused persons with the murder charge against them.
He said There is a great need for the court to tread cautiously with circumstantial evidence brought by the prosecution because as the saying goes, it is better for a guilty person to go unpunished than for the innocent person to be wrongly punished.
According to him, The identity of the killers was not proved by the prosecutors. The person the prosecutor pointed was not arraigned or called as witness and the court cannot speculate as to whether the accused persons were actual perpetuators of the crime. Accordingly, all the accused are hereby discharged and acquitted."
The judge,however, sentenced Imodu] to five year’s imprisonment for illegal possession of firearms, which is to begin from the day he was arrested and detained.
It would be recalled that the four accused persons had in October, 2010 told the court that their confessional statements were extracted by the Police through torture in a desperate bid to obtain damning evidence linking them with the murder of the Rivers-born politician.
In his testimony, Friday Amaize stated that he was arrested on April 4, 2003 in Edo State and brought to Abuja after he was mentioned by one Felix Anegbe as the person that harboured the suspected killers in his guest house at Apo, Abuja.
He said the Police shot him with a pistol, while his wife was also arrested and tortured. This he said resulted in her miscarriage and death a week after her release, all in a bid to extract confessional statement from him.
He also narrated how his wife was hung on a table, her arms stretched the way they dry fish, all in a bid to make him confess to a crime he never committed.
The accused person, who was also cross-examined by William Ashu, counsel representing the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, further alleged that the former Inspector-General of Police,Tafa Balogun, insisted he must sign whatever statement that was given to him.
He said a cheque of N20 million purportedly made out to them as payment for the assassination was issued to them by the ex-IGP for the purpose of a press briefing. He wondered why both the said cheque and Felix Anegbe were not tendered or arraigned before the court.
The other accused persons, who testified that they had never met themselves before their arrest, also alleged that their confessional statements were obtained under duress.
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